Germany’s Schwedt oil refinery reported low earnings, highlighting the difficulties the nation faces. Berlin refused to make use of Russian oil, as a substitute planning to seek out various suppliers. Poland partnered with Germany on this quest. Nevertheless, up to now, they’ve been struggling the meet the demand.
Schwedt has historically equipped 90% of the gasoline, gasoline oil, diesel, and jet gasoline utilized in Berlin. However the refinery is working at 50-60% of capability after three months for the reason that German authorities and Warsaw agreed to work collectively. In the meantime, these various provides nonetheless haven’t appeared.
Final month, Russia retaliated towards the 2 European nations’ bilateral efforts. Moscow halted oil flows to Poland, stopping its supply by way of the Druzhba pipeline. In consequence, Poland now can’t liberate a adequate quantity of oil for Schwedt. Furthermore, PKN Orlen, a Polish state-controlled refiner, has to make use of extra capability on the Gdansk oil terminal. In one other case, it received’t be capable of feed its personal Plock refinery.
Consequently, Schwedt can solely have one tanker slot in Gdansk per thirty days. That’s roughly 1 million metric tons of oil per 12 months. Sadly, that quantities to only a third of the amount that the nations want.
Germany sanctioned utilizing Russian oil because of the Ukraine battle
Berlin stopped shopping for Russian commodities in January. This choice was a part of its sanctions towards Russia after the latter invaded Ukraine. Schwedt refinery previously accounted for 233,000 barrels per day. However since January, it has been working at about 55% capability, producing about 130,000 barrels per day. It additionally relied closely on pipeline provides from the port of Rostock. The latter is in northern Germany.
Sources in Germany and Poland famous that provides by way of Poland have solely yielded two tankers up to now. Two nations began discussing transport non-Russian oil to Schwedt by way of Polish pipelines (the port of Gdansk and Druzhba) within the early spring of final 12 months.
